The Yankees are one of the few teams in baseball that are able to play through the Grapefruit League schedule without having many open competitions for spots on their 25 man roster. As we enter the middle stage of the exhibition schedule, the battles are limited to backup corner infielder, backup middle infielder and the 4th and 5th spot in the rotation. Today Joel Sherman wrote on his blog that a few anonymous scouts were convinced that the Yankees would release Sergio Mitre and thus keep Ivan Nova, Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia on their roster when they head north. I couldn’t disagree more with this assessment. Assuming all players are healthy on March 30th, I really think that Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia will be in the rotation, Mitre will be in the bullpen and Ivan Nova will be starting games for Scranton Wilkes-Barre. Both Colon and Garcia have clauses in their contract that make them free agents if they fail to make the 25 man roster, while Sergio Mitre doesn’t have any options left and therefore can’t be sent to the minors. With options left, it seems logical that the Yankees would have Nova start the season in SWB (this would allow him to stay stretched out as a starter). Then if anyone in the starting rotation goes down to injury or gets lit up on a consistent basis, he would be the first pitcher sent on the shuttle back to New York. The Yankees have some great pitching prospects (Banuelos, Betances and Brackman), but I’m not sure they are seasoned yet for a call up to The Show. I think in the above scenario there is really only one way to play the hand while keeping as much depth as possible and not rushing the development of Banuelos, Betances and Brackman. This entire analysis can change if Mitre’s oblique strain turns out to be more serious than initially reported.

Barring injury, Eric Chavez has the backup corner infield spot won. He is a former Gold Glove third baseman, and has looked comfortable enough at first to fill in for Teixeira on occasion.

Finally, that leaves the battle between Eduardo Nunez and Ramiro Pena. While Nunez has outplayed Pena this spring, I think that based on how limited this roll will be, the Yankees will break camp with Pena. Nunez will go to SWB and play regularly. The Yankees don’t have a ton of middle infield depth in the upper levels of their minor league system (ready to step in if Robinson Cano or Derek Jeter go down with an injury) so I think that keeping Nunez fresh with regular at bats will be an insurance policy in case something unexpected happens.